I write on the morning following the first truly cold night of the year with cold feet and stiff fingers. Yes, reader, feel the excitement, for fall, my favorite season, is finally here.
I’ve always suspected fall is everyone’s favorite season. This is because what people tell me they like about fall is realistic – they can go outside, the weather is predictable, helmet football is back, and so on. People can enjoy these things all day for the entire fall. This isn’t the case with those who claim to like summer or winter. These people often cite reasons like going to the beach or going skiing. These are, although enjoyable activities, not exactly things you can do all season long. In fact, from my experience most people spend these seasons huddled around the heater/air conditioner as they try to avoid the reality of the season they claim to enjoy so much.
Now, longtime readers might be rolling their eyes here – c’mon Tim, we know you value and perhaps overvalue consistency! I suppose that is true. This might explain why I was filled with pride moments ago while I was reviewing some recent newsletters because you see, reader, or have seen, that I actually followed through on something I said I would do – switch the TOA schedule to daily without overflowing the weekly word count.
Imagine, a TOA where I do what I say I will do… what other miracles are around the corner? Let’s have a look and find out.
What about spring?
What?
As a season, you talked about summer and fall and winter but you skipped spring.
Oh, spring. Yeah, spring doesn’t count in Boston, since it runs only like a week and a half. One year, I got a cold at the end of winter and, when I was healthy a few days later, I’d missed spring.
Well, what about the summer, then? You said last time you had some updates?
Not exactly, but let’s recap. I did go to Portland, Maine a couple of times. I recommend hiking along the Eastern Promenade, a recommendation I'm sure is made by 99% of those who visit Portland. If you need a coffee, I always go to Bard for a cold brew nitro. And if you 'need' a really sloppy brunch, I might suggest Silly's as not only a good option, but possibly the best sloppy brunch I’ve ever seen – I couldn’t move for three hours after I ate.
I went to see concerts by the Arctic Monkeys and Dispatch, both on a bit of a whim. I’m listening more to the former now and I think they are another example of a type of band I like – the band with the lead singer boasting a slightly unusual sound. Dispatch was a good excuse to enjoy some time outside and I thought the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion would be a great place to catch a favorite band. The one realization I had at their show was that ‘The General’ is probably as good of a bet as any song to be heard regularly fifty years from now (although I do acknowledge that the definition of ‘heard regularly’ is sure to change by then). Anyway, what a tremendous song.
I finally made it to The Sinclair but it wasn't for a concert. I went to see the Men In Blazers perform a live... podcast. We had great timing for the show because England had just lost in a World Cup semifinal earlier in the day and England just happened to be where the two hosts for the show called home. What ensued was a classic podcast episode as Roger Bennett and Michael Davies lamented the crushing end of another English tournament performance. To be fair to those guys, though (the hosts, not the English team) the show would have been a tremendous outing either way. I’m currently reading through their 'book' and I’ll probably have more to say about them when I review the reading.
And speaking of football, I did promise to recap my World Cup predictions. I’ll admit it right up front – I never made a clean prediction like ‘this team will win’ or ‘this team will lose’. However, when I combed through my pre-tournament posts, I did find this quip that I’m proud of:
3) I think the winning team will have two characteristics.
First, whoever wins must have a goal scorer capable of reliably capitalizing on those lucky breaks that come a team’s way once or twice during a game. Second, the winning team should have a dominant goalie or defender who can clear the danger in such moments (in other words, a player who can counteract the effect of the first type of player). In such a tight tournament, the margins between winning and losing are so narrow that having players who can reliably capitalize on luck might make the difference.
The top nations generally have these players with perhaps France and Brazil best fitting the bill. Breaking news: this is why they always win. Among the dark horses, I think Croatia is the best example. Some of the other countries have one or the other which means they might win a game or two but are unlikely to win in four straight knockout rounds without falling victim to some fluke incident that everyone talks about for the next fifty years.
Who knows, maybe this whole blogging bit will work out for me, after all.
Did you forget about your ‘official World Cup preview’?
What?
This, from the June newsletter…
The Official TOA World Cup Preview
Germany.Oh. Whoops.
So, you… left the house? Or no?
Hold on.
Hold what –
Got it! This is from later on in the same newsletter:
I suppose if you were trying to get clever you might bet on France, Croatia, or Columbia.You would’ve won money if you read this blog, unless you were Colombian, I guess.
OK, whatever, we’re running long here, and we don't do that stupid added time soccer stuff, so anything else?
One morning on my way to work, a woman crossing the street in front of me suddenly crumpled to the ground in the middle of the crosswalk. It was a horrible fall, reminiscent of some of the really bad knee injuries I see during helmet football games, and I feared the worst for this woman who, let’s say, didn’t have the build of an Olympic athlete. Somehow, she got up and limped away.
I examined the ground where she’d fallen and noticed a pothole about the width and depth of a shoe box. It was hard to see because it was painted over in the same white paint of the crosswalk. I knew there were some options for me as a citizen to report this and so I went online later to research. I eventually found this website and reported pretty much all of the above. I hit ‘submit’ and assumed my writing was once more about to disappear into The Great Pothole of the Interwebs, never to be seen again.
A night later, I got an email saying my case was closed because it was – get this – resolved. In a day! I couldn’t believe the audacity. I was still rolling my eyes that morning when I stumbled off to work. I was so petulant about it, in fact, that I almost missed it – the pothole I’d reported was now a perfectly smooth layer of asphalt.
Nice work, Boston. Expect to hear from me more often.
And the same goes for you, reader. Nice work reading this month and expect to hear from me again in October.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
In the next month of... True On Average...
1. At long last, three equals two.
2. You can have Shark Week, we have... Totalitarianism Week?
2. I'll tell ya what's really going on with the Patriots!
